Resignation doesn't end Solyndra questions, Republicans say

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) told POLITICO that he hoped Silver’s resignation wasn’t a precursor for other high-level DOE departures, including Chu. “I think Secretary Chu has been a great asset to the country,” Udall said. “He brings his scientific expertise as well as a keen sense of how we can compete with the world market on the energy front.”

On and off Capitol Hill, experts on energy issues said they were not surprised that Silver was heading for the exits.

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"This departure is not surprising, given that Silver has said all along that he would be leaving once the [stimulus] funding decisions were finished," said Bill Wicker, a spokesman for Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.). "We’re pleased with the level of professionalism that he brought to the job and the strong financial team he assembled."

"The only issue was really how long the administration would wait or how long someone within the department would take, with the pending IG report still waiting out there,” said Salo Zelermyer, an associate at the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani, referring to the Energy Department inspector general investigation on Solyndra.

"We'll see whether this is the first or last casualty," added Zelermyer, a former DOE attorney during the George W. Bush administration. "I think it's unclear until we see what the results of the investigation are.”

In a statement, Chu said Silver informed him in early July of his intent to leave, “shortly after … it became clear that no significant new funds were included for the loan program” in the budget.

“Since he joined the Department in November 2009, Jonathan assembled and managed a truly outstanding team that has transformed the program into the world leader in financing innovative clean energy projects,” Chu added. “Under his leadership, the loan program has demonstrated considerable success, with a broad portfolio of investments that will help American companies compete in the global clean energy market.

“Because of my absolute confidence in Jonathan and the outstanding work he has done, I would welcome his continued service at the department, but I completely understand the decision he has made,” the statement said.

Before heading the loan office, Silver was a managing director of Core Capital Partners, an early-stage investor in alternative energy technology, advanced manufacturing, telecommunications and software, which he co-founded in 1999.

Silver also held several government advisory positions during the Clinton-era Commerce, Interior and Treasury departments.

Before the Solyndra affair, DOE sought more media and public attention for the loan office to put a face on the administration’s job creation efforts.

Earlier this year in an interview with POLITICO, Silver spoke of the office with a sense of pride and accomplishment.

“I was a venture capitalist before coming to do this job and this has been a little like building a startup, essentially from scratch, while at the same time, producing goods and services — that is, investing money,” Silver said at the time.

In a news release Thursday issued by Third Way, Silver said he was "excited" to join “one the nation’s leading think tanks and a real thought leader on clean energy issues.”

"I’m looking forward to collaborating with the team on energy policy and energy finance issues," he said.

Alex Guillen contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 8:39 p.m. on October 6, 2011.

Readers' Comments (23)

If Barry can just get all the DemoRAT politicians like ole Charlie " What me pay taxes ? " Rangel and the rest of his herd to pay the income taxes they screwed the IRS out of. We can have that $535 million back in a couple of weeks that Team Obozo wasted on this folly .....couldn't we ?

If Barry can just get all the DemoRAT politicians like ole Charlie " What me pay taxes ? " Rangel and the rest of his herd to pay the income taxes they screwed the IRS out of. We can have that $535 million back in a couple of weeks that Team Obozo wasted on this folly .....couldn't we ?

Even Timmy Geithner got a "GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD" FOR CHEATING ON HIS TAXES!

Why do we allow such corruption and incompetence from the Obama Regime?

Insolent fools...Can you not clearly see that Solyndra was badly underfunded? A paltry 500,000,000 borrowed dollars for a good cause? C'mon, lets see some more zeroes on the backside...now that is talking turkey! 50,000,000,000 freaking dollars! Not even a trillion...chump change. I wonder how long it takes to print 50 trillion..or 500 trillion? I hope they can print it as fast as I can **** it away...oh yeah Vote for ME...

Why is no one questioning the fact that Obama appointed Solyndra lawyer, John Roos, to be the Ambassador to Japan? Roos was a major donor/fundraiser for Obama and an unlikely choice for the job. Japanese officials were NOT pleased with the choice!

The political corruption showcased by Solyndra is the tip of the iceberg. The procedures and criteria for the $90 billion of green Stimulus money should be reviewed. Some such as cleaning up waste sites and incentives for individuals to add insulation are worthwhile. Spending $264 million to help homeowners is hardly something that anyone would object to.

Wasting tens of billions on expanding AMTRAK, building wind and solar are projects that have no useful purpose. Specifically wind, solar and ethanol / biofuels do not clean the environment and cannot save one drop of oil. The premise, espoused by the president as recently as yesterday that these can stop our dependency on foreign oil is, to put it bluntly, a lie. This is impossible and the president surely must know this. If he doesn't then he truly is living in a cocoon of ignorance.

The green industry is a huge economic drag on the economy. Not because of the waste of most of the $90 billion for projects of little value, but from the intertwined assault on 90% of our energy supply. The choking off of energy coupled with the truly idiotic assertion that it can be replaced with wind, solar and biofuels is a green anchor on the economy.

When politicians are spending taxpayer money for projects they know have no real value, then the money quickly becomes apportioned to political supporters. This is what happened to Solyndra and the many more Solyndras to come.

Ok Senate Democrats. Time to get the criminal fraud trials about the waste and abuse in Iraq into full swing. Subpoena every neocon, every Bush official and drag their sorry ***es to Washington. If their answers aren’t sufficient, have the DOJ standing by with charges and officers standing by with handcuffs. If these hypocrite Republicans are concerned about the $500 million we lost on Solyndra, let’s see what they have to say about the $3 trillion flushed down the toilet in Iraq.

Silver, whose last day is Friday, is leaving to become a distinguished visiting fellow at Third Way, DOE confirmed Thursday while saying his departure had been planned for months.

So who is Johnathan Silver?

TeamPOLITICO: Oct. 6, 2011 - 8:42 PM EST

Before heading the loan office, Silver was a managing director of Core Capital Partners, an early-stage investor in alternative energy technology, advanced manufacturing, telecommunications and software, which he co-founded in 1999.

Silver, whose last day is Friday, is leaving to become a distinguished visiting fellow at Third Way, DOE confirmed Thursday while saying his departure had been planned for months.

"Third Way is a think tank that creates and advances moderate policy and political ideas. We advocate for private-sector economic growth, a tough and smart centrist security strategy, a clean energy revolution, and progress on divisive social issues, all through a moderate-led U.S. politics."

"With a staff of 40 and four policy programs, including Economics, National Security, Clean Energy, and Social Policy & Politics, our work includes: drafting and marketing concise and easy-to-use issue papers and reports; conducting original public opinion research and writing politically savvy strategy and framing memos; and hosting briefings, “Idea Forums,” and trainings for advocates, thought-leaders, and government officials."

Silver so far is the only member of the Obama administration connected to the program to step down since Solyndra spilled into the headlines.

Does anyone believe Mr Silver is extracting himself from ties to Federal Government loans and money. Absolutely not in my opinion he is headed back into the private sector of leeches that are bleeding this nation dry.

Has anyone noticed that the whole problem here is not enough involvement in driving the car on energy from the government not too much involvement.

Everyone on the republican side of this keeps carping about taking the "chains" off of business and letting business build the recovery. Solyndra and the other 10 solar failures are BUSINESS. Where there is money to be made by taking reduced risk you can find business at the head of the line with their hand out regardless of their political affiliation.

To all those that plug that line you are either disingenuous or you are living in the past before the advent of quantitative hedge funds, double-betting, and market makers.

So I want to get this straight. Solyndra (a private company financed by the same major private investors that finance natural gas and software start-ups, etc, etc.) would somehow have never happened if only we put business in charge of things. If we put business in charge you can almost guarantee that nothing will get solved, they will try to bleed the corpse of the american body politic even further, energy will remain dirty and get consistently more expensive thereby restricting growth and progress in the US economy.

Republicans want to solve our problems by basically doing nothing which is exactly what government has been doing for the last 20 years. From Clinton not having a Marshall plan for the fall of the eastern block and gutting basic research to Bush thinking he can fight a war with his pinky to Obama basically just letting the laissez-faire reactive approach continue instead of delivering on the "change" he promised, these guys have been sitting on their hands. The republicans want to cut R&D even more almost insuring that the technology progress pipeline that has built every US recovery since WW2 will be completely shut down and rely even more heavily on fossils.

do a basic risk analysis. If there is a 30% chance that global warming is happening and could reach a tipping point in the next few decades the potential asset loss runs at least around 50 trillion given that most industrial assets are on coastlines or rivers. We could probably solve the whole problem for around 1 trillion if it became a national research priority to find a clean energy dense inexpensive form of energy generation.

I agree the loan program was a waste of money and time. The 9 billion should have been spent on research to create viable forms of advanced generation not to prop up PRIVATE INVESTORS that made bad decisions 5-10 years ago so they can get their liquidity events and go buy some more Maclarans.

That said handing it all over to business interests and the republicans would be like going from the frying pan into the fire.

Obama is not great. As a matter of fact he has been downright bad given the hope he held out for the American people, but the alternatives are substantially worse unless everyone thinks it is a good idea to let wall street leverage everything at 100x and wants a major depression in the next 5 years.

There are plenty of subsidies that the GOP defends: oil and agricultural.

Both Parties need to kick the subsidy habit and then drop the overall corporate tax rate for all businesses.

Might that put our businesses at a disadvantage with heavily subsidized businesses from other countries? Perhaps. Which is why we need a get-tough trade policy that includes that stick of accountability: the tariff.

If the US and fellow democracies could move away from the current competition of subsidies, and sign real 'free' trade, reciprocal agreements, then the taxpayers and small businesses in all of our nations would be much better served.

In Response to comment #5: "the only questions that remain are just how far the GOP will go to sink any Dem POTUS-----You guessed it ----untile they are back in power or until they start a new 1776/1861"

Of course you will blame the GOP for the scandals of the current Administration, after all, The Won did it from practically Day 1 by blaming Bush for everything from the Freddie Mac/Fanny Mae failures to the screw-ups of his own administration. He's still doing it.

For a change of pace, try something the Democrats have been loathe to do: be accountable. Revolution (1776)? Civil War (1861)? Talk about loose mental functioning.

Has anyone noticed that the whole problem here is not enough involvement in driving the car on energy from the government not too much involvement.

Hmmm. You feel that the warnings by the CBO, the Bush administration, congressional watchdogs, Geithner and Summers along with many private advisors was not enough involvement to advise the Obama administration that investing in Solyndra was a bad idea and think more involvement in "driving the car" of government would have stopped him?

Interesting.............and you think the problem is Reublicans who warned against and stopped investing in Solyndra and Obama is in the clear because there wasn't enough government involvement!!! You really didn't give this much thought, did you.

There are plenty of subsidies that the GOP defends: oil and agricultural.

Both Parties need to kick the subsidy habit and then drop the overall corporate tax rate for all businesses.

Hmmm, agriculture is supported by both parties. Obama is even a supporter of corn based ethanol when environmentalists think it is a horrible idea.

There are no oil subsidies. There are allowable deductions that they take like all businesses and most individuals. Eliminating these deductions is fine with me. It will increase the cost of oil, but no big deal, it will not be much.

Coupled with this we should end ethanol subsidies and renewable subsidies. This will collapse renewables overnight, but there would be no impact on measurable air quality, less federal debt and cheaper electricity. This is all good news.......except for profiteers from green rackets.